A Behavioral Function Approach in Predicting Contribution of User-Generated Content

This study theoretically develops a three-stage model in which certain types of health behavior functions (i.e., health-affirming vs. health-detection/treatment) prime individuals to process information with either a defensive or accuracy motivation. Such information-processing motivations, in turn, are expected to influence the contribution and consumption of user-generated health content. The three-stage model was tested with data from an online sample of American adults (N = 767). A well-fitting structural equation model provided evidence for each of the hypothesized paths except for that from health-detection/treatment behavior to accuracy motivation. Individuals' information search for health-affirming behaviors instigated a defensive motivation. Moreover, while both information-processing motivations influenced user-generated content consumption, only defensive motivation had a significant effect on user-generated content contribution. Finally, there was also one significant cross-stage path in which health-affirming behavior had a direct effect on content contribution, thus, overstepping defensive and accuracy motivations.